Oh, and I just finished reading Liberty and Tyranny by Mark Levin. I won’t quote any passages because there’s so much gold in there if I start, I’ll end up posting the entire book. Just … read it. It’ll make you smarter. (with thanks once again to Redbaiter for introducing me to The Great One).

Levin did a Q&A at the Reagan Presidential Library last week. It’s on Youtube here:

Having finished Liberty & Tyranny, I’ve moved on to After America by Mark Steyn. Both Liberty & Tyranny and After America have very deep, disturbing subject-matter but I find myself more optimistic about the future having read them (well, read one and reading the other) because surely, surely, surely, what these two brilliant men write makes sense to millions of others as well as just me? I mean, if I can get it…

To read them, one has to know that it’s necessary to know more.
Most people are too uninformed to know they’re uninformed. Not stupid, just utterly unaware that television “news” and what they read in newspapers is a tiny slice of reality and not necessarily the truth.
So the number of people who will read and absorb what the Levins and Steyns have to say is a tiny, tiny fraction of the population.
Enough to make a difference? Dunno. If it is, then it will be a slow process, and I doubt we have that much time.

There goes the tingle up my leg. Thanks for killing my buzz, man. I guess it’s back to :rant for me.

Seriously though, I saw Steyn on last week’s Q&A (the show where some tool threw a shoe at John Howard, because some other tool on Twitter told him to), and it answered for me the question of why a Conservative would willingly step into the lion’s den. Steyn was erudite, charming, articulate (and Amanda Vanstone was also on the panel). Many of the tweets (surprisingly) were supportive of his comments. If just one twit from the tweets takes it the next step and reads Steyn’s columns or books, it might be one less libtard in the world. And that, my friend, makes the world just a tiny, tiny bit better place.

As Mark Levin says (yes I know, I know, stars in my eyes), he’s “educating the world, one liberal at a time”.

Well, if they lose the US, where the people (a) are generally a lot more politically aware than here, and (b) have the worlds best set of foundation documents on which to rely … then there is no hope for the rest of us.

I’ve had the conversation with a few IRL people, about why I’m taking an interest in the Republican Primaries. It’s pretty amazing to see people’s reactions when you explain whats really going on, who Zero really is, what he’s doing to the US and what it means for the rest of us.

The other thing I like to do is walk people through their constitutional arrangements. They bleat about free speech. The more enlightened den understand the concept of private property rights. But what most don’t know is that in every western country except the US, the only rights people have is those granted to them by their political masters. Only in the US were the founders so afraid of tyranny they set up the three branches with specifically enumerated authority. It’s just a pity you can’t legislate morality and uprightness, huh?

The solution is total disempowerment of politicians by a Constitution. Unfortunately we no longer have leaders who have the honesty or strength of character, and there are too many gimme groups wanting their free lunch, to write one that would ensure a secure future. The Nats and the Maori are going to stuff it up big time.

I read Levin’s L&T when if first came out,excellent book,well referenced too.It was actually difficult for me to read,I kept finding myself chasing references as I went along.I think I wore out a couple book marks

I’m taking a series of photos of the Hotel Grand Chancellor deconstruction from my desk. Unfortunately, I didn’t get this bright idea untill the top 3 levels and plant room were gone. At the moment it’s close to half down and provides an interesting distraction :popcorn

Virtual Popcorn Has Virtually no harmful properties
I assume a C-4 type solution was not available because of the potential effects to other less compromised (savable) nearby structures… but most probably political.

Well, yes, they were. Really. Our local hardware store in South Australia stocked gelignite in wooden cases behind the counter when I were a brat, and any adult could walk in and buy it, by the stick or the case.
I don’t recall anybody going berserk with the stuff and blowing up police stations and parliament buildings. Just the odd car wreck and tree stumps.

oh, it’s for a reason all right–just not the reason that’s being given.
“..the long arm hasn’t reached all the way to little ol’ Coatesville for no reason” is no better than the people who say “he must be guilty, otherwise they wouldn’t have arrested him”.
Arrest by government goons is not evidence of guilt.

No KG, the guy has form, and has been on the move for a long time, until he went as far as he could – good old Godzone.
What I don’t get is why the knee-jerk NZ public is so affronted on behalf of a fat German conman who bought his way into the country with dirty money, and who displays all the signs of being the biggest and “best” con man to ever get across our border (we have a long history of such people – remember Paul Holmes fawning over Milan Brych?). Whatever “info” Herr Schmidt has, that doesn’t alter what and who he is ( in one word : a major thief) – let’s not confuse the two issues.
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In the end, you and I may both get our expected outcomes here; meantime, I declare a Mexican standoff. Have some popcorn :popcorn while we wait, cheers.

Tough call Darin, but on balance (which may not be the most appropriate word ), maybe Santorum. His personal (religious) issues aren’t really in the mix (that’s mostly been MSM bullshit) , and he’s pretty good on the REAL issues: national security and the economy.

” 75% of our meat is halal”.
The newspaper headline above is from the local paper Le Villefranchois. The article warns the citizens of Villefranche-de-Rouergue (department of l’Aveyron) that 75% of the meat they purchase is halal.
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That is followed by THIS line: ‘For those who buy New Zealand lamb, you should be aware that 70% of the lamb, including exported lamb, is halal.”

Having had personal experience with meatworks – I was part of a small group of engineers who redesigned the Beef Slaughter chain at Wellington’s Taylor Preston Ltd – I can give you the low down on Halal slaughter methods and typical percentage breakdowns of Halal vs non-Halal.

Typical breakdown for a given works – Halal vs non-Halal:
If a works has ANY component which is exported to Muslim countries then ALL of the throughput is slaughtered in accordance with Halal certification. This includes exports to non-Muslim countries AND all Local Trade (ie for our local market).

So, for example, in Wellington’s case because the Taylor side (of Taylor Preston Ltd) of the business is concerned with export only, and mainly to Muslim countries, then all exports out of Wellington are Halal. And as the Preston side of the business is Local Trade to Wellington and environs, and because no distinction is made between export and local trade regarding slaughter methods, then ALL of Wellington’s Local Trade is also Halal.

So the ONLY works which are non-Halal are those which a) if export, do not export to Muslim countries, OR b) are dedicated to Local Trade only.

So all you Wellingtonians, when you purchase beef or mutton products you are eating Halal prepared meat.

Yet another example of how the Muslim world dictates how we live our lives in the West.

‘I believe that politicians, lawyers, busy-bodies and do-gooders are like salamis- greatly improved by hanging for a time.’ Oswald Bastable

"The loss of freedom is like cancer; it will spread slowly but surely across all parts of society until our liberty has been utterly eaten away and we are left with nothing but a half-forgotten idea of what freedom was."